Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: Kir6.2

Title: The cross channel activities of spider neurotoxin huwentoxin-I on rat dorsal root ganglion neurons.

Authors: Meichi Wang, Xin Guan, Songping Liang

Journal, date & volume: Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 2007 Jun 8 , 357, 579-83

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17451655

Abstract
In this paper, we investigated the action of huwentoxin-I (HWTX-I) purified from the venom of the Chinese bird spider Ornithoctonus huwena on Ca(2+), Na(+) channels of adult rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. The results showed that huwentoxin-I could reduce the peak currents of N-type Ca(2+) channels (IC(50) approximately 100 nM) and TTX-S Na(+) channels (IC(50) approximately 55 nM), whereas no effect was detected on TTX-R Na(+) channels. The comparative studies indicated that the selectivity of HWTX-I on Ca(2+) channels was higher that of MVIIA and approximately the same as that of GVIA. HWTX-I is the first discovered toxin with the cross channel activities from the spider O. huwena venom similar to micro O-conotoxins MrVIA and MrVIB.